Gold dots "short barrel" ammo

[Anchors]

Bought some Gold Dots when I got my G17 Gen4 and the clerk accidentally sold me the 9mm Luger Speer Gold Dots +P "Short Barrel".
It says it's designed for faster expansion in 2" barrels.
Is it safe to shoot in my Glock (If so is it effective?) or am I out $25?

*Edit: He was actually the owner of the shop, but he gave me some decent deals and was pretty cool. I will shop there again.*

[Taildraggerdave]

"Short Barrel" is probably more of a marketing term. The cartridge is already labeled +P so that is what it really is, a 9mm JHP +P. A longer barrel allows the bullet to travel faster for the same charge weight, bullet weight, etc than a shorter barrel. So, these +P rounds in a short barrel should perform the same as non +P rounds in a longer barrel.

I bought a couple boxes of these for SD ammo and out of my 3" XD9SC they chrono at 1121fps for a power factor of 139 and they deliver 345 ft pounds of energy.
If I shot these exact rounds out of my 5" XD, I would expect them to run in the low 1200fps range.

If your Glock is rated for +P ammo, then you should be fine.

Take care,
Dave

[tuna quesadilla]

The Gold Dot "Short Barrel" loads actually use a different projectile than the standard Gold Dot loads. The "Short Barrel" projectiles are designed to reliably expand at a lower range of velocities than the standard Gold Dot loads (these are necessary for a short barrel because a shorter barrel = less velocity). They're plenty safe to shoot in your Glock, but I would not use them for self-defense, simply because I have no idea how the projectile would perform in terms of terminal ballistics when shot from your 4.49" Glock barrel.

Sell the short barrel loads on the classifieds and pick up a box of standard Gold Dots.

[SVRider]

The Gold Dot "Short Barrel" loads actually use a different projectile than the standard Gold Dot loads. The "Short Barrel" projectiles are designed to reliably expand at a lower range of velocities than the standard Gold Dot loads (these are necessary for a short barrel because a shorter barrel = less velocity). They're plenty safe to shoot in your Glock, but I would not use them for self-defense, simply because I have no idea how the projectile would perform in terms of terminal ballistics when shot from your 4.49" Glock barrel.

Sell the short barrel loads on the classifieds and pick up a box of standard Gold Dots.

Correct on all of the above...

The big question would be would the bullets over expand and under penetrate at full-sized barrel length. Probably not, but just get the regular stuff...

[Anchors]

Thanks guys, is anyone actually going to meet me to buy one box of ammo? haha.

[BigDogatPlay]

The increase in velocity between a ~3 inch barrel and a ~4 inch barrel is not going to be so large as to blow the bullet up. But buy a box and test... you'll have a lot of fun doing so.



That said I am evaluating Gold Dot short barrel 38 +P in a 2.5 inch Model 19, in part because my preferred ammo, Hydra Skock, is not well suited in snub barrels. The "short barrel" in part is a marketing term, but they use a slightly lighter constructed bullet and a bit faster powder to reduce muzzle flash. Based on this thread I'm thinking about firing a gun full in one of my four and six inch models as well just to see what they do.

[JJE]

I use the "short barrel" ammo for revolvers and I've read a bunch about them and seen several sets of results from shooting these into gelatin and wet newsprint. They are safe to use if they are the correct caliber and pressure rating for the gun (in other words, the fact that they are "short barrel" ammo doesn't impose any additional requirements). From what I have seen, this ammo performs well in short barrel guns (when standard bullets would not expand much), but also performs fine in standard barrel lengths (the bullets don't expand so aggresively that they are going to disintegrate when shot from a standard barrel). For instance, the same 135 gr "short barrel" bullet is used in 38 Spl+P and in 357 Magnum ammo, where even a snubby magnum is going to deliver at least 200 fps more than a 38 Spl - and apparently it works fine at both velocities.

[Khram]

Would probably make good home defense low penetration round but it may be better to get another round but I think it would be still ok. You need to penetrate to a certain degree but overpenetration is also not good for various reasons.

[1JimMarch]

WAIT: I don't these these are a bad idea at all in "too long" a barrel. Within reason of course, a carbine, fuggeduboudit.

See, Gold Dots are particularly cool slugs. The jacket is a thick electroplate of copper on top of a lead core. The jacket tends to stay stuck to the core better than any other design. This lets them run a lot faster than their designed-in speed range. Most JHPs when "overdriven" will fall apart - the nose area expands and then shreds, leaving dribbles of lead and often the whole jacket back along the wound channel leaving the core about 1/3rd underweight and dropped back to the original caliber diameter, like a runty full wadcutter.

Gold Dots don't tend to do that.

Now, it IS possible to overdrive 'em. Cor-Bon proved that once with some test ammo - they took the 60gr projectile meant for a 32ACP and loaded it into 32Magnum cases out of a 4.5" barrel and proved that yeah, under extreme circumstances you can make a Gold Dot come completely unglued. But it blew past the chrony at something like 1,500fps when it was meant for 850 .

In your case, you're going to get some boost out the 5" barrel but nothing like THAT.

Another data point: Speer's 135gr 38+P Gold Dot has a great rep when flung around 850fps. But they also sell what sure as hell looks like the exact same slug in a 357Mag "short barrel" load. This is among the mildest "357" loads ever made but it's still about 150fps hotter - about the difference between a 2" and 5" 9mm barrel. And it holds up OK.

Ok, another example: I carry DoubleTap Ammo's 125gr 357Magnum full house load. It's based on the Speer Gold Dot 125gr "high speed" projectile, meant to work at around 1,450 or so when Speer loads it (from a 4" tube). Doubletap loads it to damn near 1,600fps or a tad over, and Buffalo Bore loads the same slug even hotter. And these things have shown good results out of actual rifles doing better than 2,100fps(!) and they still hold up.

One thing's for sure, the 9mm short barrel special is going to expand FAST from a 5" tube. And there's nothing wrong with that per se. I suspect they'll perform extremely well from a 5" tube.

Because Gold Dots survive being "overdriven" better than anything else with their only possible competitor in that category being the Barnes all-copper hollowpoints.

I'd carry 'em. No problem at all.

[Anchors]

Nice, thanks for the input Jim.
I always appreciate your posts.
I think I'll just keep them.